Last night, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced a new partnership agreement with the global sanitation company LIXIL to extend market-based solutions for sanitation and hygiene to underserved and vulnerable communities around the world.

The partnership agreement builds on previous collaboration between LIXIL and USAID and will scale LIXIL's SATO latrine and toilet products in up to 11 countries across sub-Saharan Africa and Asia to combat the global sanitation crisis. More than two billion people around the world lack access to high-quality sanitation.

Future collaboration also will aim to strengthen sanitation supply-chains and markets, and create business opportunities for women entrepreneurs as well as small and medium-sized enterprises in emerging economies. This new partnership leverages the unique expertise, resources and reach of USAID and LIXIL to further their joint mission to strengthen sanitation and hygiene among the most vulnerable populations around the world.

USAID works with the private sector, civil society, and local communities to invest in countries across the globe to help deliver reliable water and sanitation and achieve long-lasting impact at scale. The pandemic of COVID-19 has brought new urgency to this work. Since 2008, USAID's partnerships have extended sustainable sanitation to 38 million people; by 2022, USAID aims to reach eight million more.